The famous Canada based peace educator, Reva Joshi, shared her experiences of training school children in nonviolence. Her message was that nonviolence can’t be defined in the context of violence as the English word for Ahimsa may seem to suggest. The children she and fellow educationists are teaching, learning Ahimsa as Ahimsa and define it as a way of living where one is kind to others in thoughts, words and action. She made an interesting remark about how very young children seem to understand ahimsa quicker than other age groups and cited examples of how they practiced it in their daily lives to resolve conflicts. In one case, a group of children had taken a project to work with the homeless people.
Referring to the methodology of peace education withinin a Gandhian framework, she elaborated on three key terms: relationships, for everything that we learn is transmitted through a relationship; agency, which refers to the capacity for individual action for change, and nonviolence. Ms. Joshi will be a key participant in the peace convention in Wardha, 28-30 Jan, where she will be sharing aspects of her work on peace education.
Jai Jagat inaugurated the Aryabhatta Astronomy Park in the Shani temple compound next to the Brahspati temple, Maharashtra where the padyatrees stayed overnight.The group walked nearly twenty kilometres in the hot sun to reach Sellu, a day away from the final destination in Wardha.